Not every vulnerable witness needs a TV link

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Efforts are being made to make the courtroom a less forbidding place where those with special needs can give evidence in person

PAUL is standing in a witness box at Liverpool Crown Court explaining to an interviewer how he felt when he gave evidence in this same court against a man accused of raping him. For anybody, the assault that took place at night on a poorly lit railway platform would be traumatic. Paul, 48, has a severe learning disability and, at first meeting, his speech is difficult to understand. In some parts of the country, it is doubtful that the Crown Prosecution Service would have gone ahead with such a vulnerable key witness. But not in Liverpool. An initiative developed there,